Chapter 24: First Kill

Josh saw the commotion George and Matilda are doing halfway during his walk.

'The guy and the girl seemed to know each other.' Josh listened for a bit but then when he heard the girl saying,

'… I risked my life entering near the middle region of the forest for this,' he assumed that she was being forced to give her possession.

With this, Josh thought of using his 'erase' lightly on the guy to injure him, but,

'This is too risky… Both of them are in front of me, I might misdirect my spell again…'

"Right, the drain should do it… weaken him before fighting mano a mano." Josh muttered while carefully trudging in the back."

"Okay, here I go. Drain." Josh muttered his spell but nothing happened.

'Maybe I'm not in range?'

Josh carefully walked closer to the guy that has his back exposed on him. He kept on trying to use his spell while limiting the range in between them.

After a while,

"Drain." Josh's voice echoed to George's and Matilda's ears, as the midnight was creepily quiet.

"Who's there!?" George abruptly turned around only to see a kid who just entered his adult years.

"What are you doing here, kid? Go around and leave now or else-" He abruptly stopped mid-talking as he felt something being drawn from him.

He checked himself and was shocked to feel that his magic presence reserve is being sucked away.

"S-STOP!" He shouted at Josh with bulging eyes.

Josh didn't listen and just stood there. His eyes shine slightly with a color of gray that's bordering on silver. His dark blue hair swayed fiercely with the mana wave he released wastefully. His eyes narrowed, fully focused on the whole body of George.

"I SAID STOP! FIRE ASSAULT!" George conjured a huge ball of fire and threw it to Josh.

Josh, having little reaction time and only woke up from his stupor due to the heat, muttered,

'Shit! That will burn me alive!! If it's come to this…'

He abruptly canceled his 'drain spell' and, in an instinctive way, he put both of his hands in front of him, and when he felt his hands touch the slightest bit of the fireball, he conjured,

"Erase!!" Josh shouted in all his might.

And, to George's surprise, his 'fire assault' that he put more mana than he usually does, turned to just a whiff of smoke indicating its past existence, but it totally vanished.

"W-what!? H-how!? Fuck! It doesn't matter! Gargantuan Cannon!" A huge cannon materialized in front of George, but when he thought all of this will be finally over,

Josh shouted with all his might, "Drain!!"

George felt that his magic is getting sucked so much that he prematurely shoot his cannon's shell without even a second of charging.

With a little bit of clarity from what he felt earlier, Josh held out his hands, and when he felt his hands touch just the tiniest part of the shell, he shouted,

"ERASE!!"

The shell vanished, leaving not a trail, even a whiff of smoke.

Josh looked at his hands and saw that it's entirely red with even bones already visible in both, but he didn't think much of it as he shouted again,

"DRAIN!!"

This time, George has his eyes wide, his knees bend forward as he was too exhausted. He checked his magic presence reserve and was shocked to see it has no more mana in it, even a speck of fire can't be made using his 'fire assault'.

With his stress level reaching so high, his instincts drove him, his right hand reached for his side bag, he pulled out a gun, and while falling,

*Boom!*

"ARGH!" Josh held his thigh as blood oozed out from the huge chunk of meat that was blasted from it. It was a miracle that only the side of his thigh was shot.

He walked raggedly with all his injuries toward the guy.

From everything that he felt, including the risk of almost dying, if not for instinctively 'erasing' the spell and the guy's last resort gunshot, he had his eyes narrowed so much that his grey iris is surrounded by hints of red, making it bloodshot.

He was so angry that he can't think.

And when he reached the unconscious guy, he touched his body, and said darkly,

"Erase."

George's body slowly vanished. Slowly from his feet.

When he felt excruciating pain, George forcefully woke up only to see the bloodshot eyes of Josh looking down at him while his hand was touching his shoulder. He peed his pants, soiled his bottom, and tears run down his face spontaneously. He tried to shout, but the only voice that came out from him is,

"ARGH!!" Slowly, his lower body vanished, leaving only his upper body.

"ARGH!!" Slowly, his abdomen vanished.

"ARGH!!" Slowly, only his head remains.

*whisshh~*

Nothing was left behind of him. His very existence is gone on earth.